


Darkness in Almia

by DarkGreiga



Series: Tales of Rangershipping [2]
Category: Pokemon Ranger
Genre: F/M, FanFiction.Net, Old Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22081699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkGreiga/pseuds/DarkGreiga
Summary: Sequel from Ringtown Duo. Two months after the incident in Indigo Plateau, Lunick and Solana were called on another mission. More adventure awaits as they traveled to Almia!
Relationships: Hinata | Solana/Kazuki | Lunick
Series: Tales of Rangershipping [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560412
Kudos: 4





	1. A New Crisis

Two months had passed since Indigo Plateau was attacked. Solana slowly recovered from her injuries and was able to do mission again. The Ringtown rangers thought that the world was at peace again, but the whole thing was just the beginning of another crisis.

It was early in the morning, but Solana had already woken up. She had been downstairs already and was walking in the corridor where the dorms were. She stopped in front of Lunick’s room and knocked on the door.

“Lunick, are you up yet? Leader wants to see us both immediately!” Solana said as she knocked.

“Okay, I’ll be ready soon!” Solana could hear a soft thud and Lunick’s partner Minun trying to help his ranger. “You go down first, Solana. I’ll come down as soon as I’m done!”

Solana sighed as she knew that Lunick had just woken up, “Okay, but don’t take too long!”

“Don’t worry, I will be there in a flash!” Lunick replied from inside his room.

Solana turned to her partner, Plusle, who was by her foot.

“Plah?”

“It’s nothing, Plusle...” Solana picked up the red eared bunny pokemon and let her rest on her shoulder instead, “Let’s go back downstairs, shall we?”

Plusle nodded and Solana walked towards the elevator and headed to the first floor. When the elevator doors opened on the first floor, Solana saw that Spenser was leaning against the wall next to the styler recharging machine. His eyes were closed and his face showed a serious expression.

“Leader, Lunick said that he would come down soon,” Solana reported and Spenser turned to her with the serious expression still on his face. “Should we wait for him to come down or will you explain the situation now?”

“We’ll wait for him. It’s better for both of you to hear the explanation from me first,” Spenser replied as he walked to a nearby table to sit.

“Understood, Leader!” Solana and Plusle saluted.

“Sorry for the wait!” The elevator doors opened and Minun with Minun on his shoulder ran to Solana’s side.

“Okay, since the two of you are present now, I’ll start explaining your mission,” Spenser stood up and walked over to the two younger rangers.

“This morning, we received a call from Ranger Union in Almia region. It was about Altru Tower and some Almian rangers disappearing when they investigated the tower,” Spenser started.

“They just disappeared? But what could have caused the rangers to disappear?” Solana asked.

“We haven’t figured out the cause yet, unfortunately... But an Almian ranger named Kellyn managed to come back from the tower, badly injured. He said that the wild pokemon inside the tower attacked him for no reason at all...” Spenser continued.

‘ _It’s like what happened in Indigo Plateau... What on earth is going on here?’_ Lunick thought as his hands curled into fists.

“Lunick, do you remember what happened in Altru Tower a year after the incident in Fiore Temple? I believe you read about it in the newspaper,” Spenser asked.

“Well... If I recall correctly, a wild Darkrai was befriended by an Almian ranger to calm it down after it rampaged and three gems called the ‘Tears of Princes’ hovered on top of the tower until now...” Lunick replied.

“Exactly. The Ranger Union informed us that those gems had also disappeared, leaving only the purified shadow crystal,” Spenser continued his explanation.

“WHAT!?” Lunick and Solana yelled in unison.

“How could the gems be stolen anyway? There’s a tight security, isn’t there?” Lunick asked, still recovering from the shock.

“But what would they do with the gems anyway?” Solana added.

“That’s what they want you to find out. Almia is running short on available rangers, so they asked us to help with this investigation mission. We’re all counting on you!” Spenser finally finished his explanation.

“Understood, Leader!” Lunick and Solana said in unison as they saluted.

“Alright, dismissed!”

“Come on, Solana! We’ll take the Dragonite Bus to Almia!” Lunick grabbed Solana’s hand and the two of them hurried to the top floor.

The flight to Almia went smoothly, unlike their flight to Kanto. The half hour trip went by fast as they enjoyed themselves above the white clouds. They saw a flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto migrating as they were flying.

The rangers could feel the blowing wind on their skin as it blew their hair back and forth. Their pokemon partners, Plusle and Minun, were on their respective rangers’ shoulders and were enjoying the breeze.

Suddenly Dragonite roared, but this time it was a friendly one to tell the rangers that they were close to the destination place. Dragonite slowly dove into the sea of white clouds and flew lower to get out of the sea of clouds.

As the clouds cleared out, a rather large island could be seen surrounded by the blue sea. Most parts of the island were green as it had many trees, forests, and grass fields. At the northern part of the island, a very tall building with steel-colored walls stood.

Dragonite flew faster towards the island while going down as well, heading towards the western side of the island. As they were flying above the trees in a forest, the rangers saw a tall red building with a huge tree on the roof.

“Solana, look! Is that red building Almia’s Ranger Union?” Lunick asked, pointing at the red building which was a few feet in front of them.

“Yep, it is. That’s where Leader told us to go,” Solana answered before Lunick turned to her with a questioning look. Solana sighed and continued, “He told me where it is and what it looks like before you woke up this morning...”

“Alright,” Lunick turned back to the front and let out an eager smile, “Ranger Union, here we come!”

A few minutes later, Dragonite stopped in front of the Ranger Union and landed on the empty space in front of it. It lowered its head for the rangers to get off before letting out a soft roar. An old man with a stick along with two rangers behind him came out of the building after hearing Dragonite’s roar.

“Professor Hastings!” Solana recognized the old man, “Were you the one who called us this morning?”

“Indeed, it was me. We have been waiting for quite a while, so please come into the Union right now before we waste more of our precious time!” Professor Hastings turned back to the door and was going to enter the building when one of the rangers stopped him.

“Come on, Professor... Don’t you think we should introduce ourselves to the Fiore rangers first?” One of the rangers said. He was a teenager with brown spiky hair and brown eyes.

“Alright, but make it quick! Evil doesn’t wait!” Professor Hastings said before going into the building.

“Geez... That professor can be quite impatient, can’t he?” The brown haired ranger commented before turning back to Lunick and Solana, “Well, my name’s Keith, Rank 10 ranger.”

“I’m Solana, and this is Lunick, my workmate...” Solana turned to Lunick, who had big eyes and was staring at the other ranger.

She was a teenage girl about Keith’s age with brown hair tied into two pigtails and blue eyes. She was also staring back at Lunick with big eyes. Keith noticed this and waved his hand in front of her face.

“Hello? Earth to Kate!” Keith said while waving his hand in front of her face.

Lunick and Kate suddenly pointed at each other, “WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU HERE!?”


	2. Union Briefing

“WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU HERE!?” Lunick and Kate yelled while pointing at each other before all four of them went silent for a few seconds.

“Lunick, do you know her?” Solana asked.

“Yes... Sadly, she’s my little sister Kate...” Lunick answered with a sigh.

“Why do you have to say ‘sadly’!? For your information, I was the one who captured Darkrai and saved Almia!” Kate grew angry and stomped angrily until she was in front of Lunick.

“And for your information as well, I captured Raikou, Suicune, and Entei one after another to save Fiore... Not to mention that I captured Kyogre a few months ago...” Lunick made a comeback in the bragging with a sly grin, which made the younger female ranger growl angrily.

“Fine! I admit that you win this time only, but don’t forget that I’ve won debating against you for about 999 times already!” Kate turned to Keith, who was watching the siblings arguing near the door, “Let’s go, Keith! The professor will be mad at us if we take more time here!”

“Alright, alright...” Keith saw as Kate entered the building and then turned to the two older rangers, “Your Dragonite will stay outside, right? You know that it won’t fit through the door!” He said jokingly.

“Yeah, but he will be heading back to Fiore soon after some rest here,” Lunick replied with a smile before turning to Dragonite, “Take your time here to rest, big guy!”

Dragonite let out a soft roar as it obeyed. Keith along with Lunick and Solana went inside, leaving the large dragon pokemon outside to rest before it flew back to Fiore.

Both Lunick and Solana were in awe as they entered the building. Clean white walls combined with yellow sparkling floor and air conditioning. There were only a few area rangers on the ground floor, some of them were helping the operators in charge of styler recharging behind the counter in the middle of the big room.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Keith asked the two, “I believe I had the same expression as you two when I first came here as one of the twelve top rangers.”

“I guess I can say that this is pretty cool! Don’t you think so, Solana?” Lunick turned to her and she nodded in agreement.

“I know you’d say that... Come on, we’ll take the escalator to the second floor!” The three of them headed towards the left side of the room, going up on the escalator.

The second floor had some empty space near the escalator. On their left, there was a door between to corridors, shaping a big room behind the door. Next to the farthest corridor, there was another room smaller than the other one between the corridors.

“Come on, the professor should be waiting in his lab. It’s the door at the opposite side of the room,” The three of them walked over to the door. Keith pulled out a white card with a black stripe on it and swiped it on the device next to the door, making it slide open.

“An electric lock, huh? The Ranger Union has some quite advanced technology compared to Ringtown Base back in Fiore...” Lunick commented.

“The professor’s idea. He doesn’t like to be bothered by unimportant people when he’s doing some research or something,” Keith let out a sigh, “Now I think we can expect him to blow up on us for taking such a long time...” Keith shuddered a bit before going in, followed by Lunick and Solana.

“Finally, everyone’s here!” Professor Hastings said with a slightly annoyed tone.

His lab was almost full of monitors and strange devices. He was standing in the middle of the room with Kate beside him. Behind them, there was a capsule shaped machine. Its bottom half was made of machines while the top half was made of transparent glass. Inside the glass, there was a rather strange looking black stone.

“I guess I’ll start explaining about what we’ve found out so far,” The professor turned to Lunick and Solana, “This case might have something to do with the incident in Indigo Plateau two months ago.”

Professor Hastings turned away from the rangers and looked at the strange black stone inside the machine, “As much as I don’t believe this, the stone inside is actually a shadow crystal shard. What I don’t believe is that the shadow crystal was supposed to be purified during Operation Brighton three years ago.”

“What if it’s just a different type of stone?” All eyes were on Solana, “I mean, what if the stone is actually something that looks very similar to the shadow crystal shard but it’s actually different? Don’t you think it’s possible?”

“Perhaps it is, but somehow it isn’t. The structure analysis of both samples had identical results, and the energy readings were exactly the same. According to the ranger whom we sent to investigate Altru Tower, the pokemon attacked him mercilessly unlike when the shadow crystal took control of them...” Professor Hastings explained.

“A device...” The gang turned to see the door slid open, revealing a wounded ranger with bandages on his arms and legs. He had brown hair and was about the same height as Lunick and Solana. He was wearing a red ranger uniform jacket and dark brown shorts identical to Keith’s.

“Kellyn, my boy! You shouldn’t be up yet!” Professor Hastings told the wounded ranger worriedly.

“It’s okay, Professor... I’ll be fine after that long rest for the past few days, but I was told that shouldn’t be out for difficult missions yet,” The ranger, Kellyn, replied and stepped into the room slowly.

“I saw a man in black at the tower before I blacked out. I believe he was carrying some kind of device shaped like a gun, but it had a small antenna on top of it,” Kellyn started.

“A gun shaped device with an antenna...” Professor Hastings put a hand under his chin while thinking as he paced back and forth in the room, “Could this be the one causing the pokemon to be more aggressive?”

‘ _This is bad... Those pokemon must be suffering too...’_ Lunick thought as he curled his hands into fists, “Then we should prevent things from getting worse by going to the tower right away!”

“Absolutely not!” The sudden angry voice coming from the old professor shocked the rangers in the room, “It’s not safe to charge towards an unknown enemy without a plan! We have no choice but to be on standby here for at least a day, or until we come up with a perfect plan to strike.”

“But...” Lunick was cut off by Solana, who put a hand on Lunick’s shoulder.

“The professor’s right, Lunick... We don’t know who our enemy is and what they’re up to, so it’s best to take the time and come up with a decent plan,” Solana suggested. Lunick hesitated at first, but he finally gave up in the end.

“Now that’s settled, I’ll give you a day off to prepare for tomorrow,” The professor then turned to Kellyn, “Kellyn, I need you to stay here for a moment. I still have some questions to ask you about what happened in the tower when you went there the other day.”

Lunick, Solana, Keith, and Kate left the room, leaving Kellyn with Professor Hastings. They went down to the ground floor with the escalator and gathered in the nearest corner. Suddenly, a weasel like pokemon with two tails along with a white squirrel like pokemon ran over to them.

“Buizel! Pachirisu!” Keith noticed the pokemon running towards them. The weasel pokemon, Buizel, ran over to Keith while the white squirrel pokemon ran over to Kate.

“Are they your partner pokemon?” Solana asked.

“Yeah, this is my partner Buizel. I met him during one of my early missions in Summerland,” Keith replied as he petted the weasel’s head.

“Ah, I remember now! I’ve heard about you from Cameron and our Leader that you stopped a wild Gyarados from rampaging, right?” Lunick asked.

“Yes, yes, he’s the one...” Kate replied, feeling annoyed, “Pachirisu became my official partner right after I became a ranger years ago.”

“Well... I guess I can say that’s pretty great!” Lunick turned to the rest, “So what should we do now?”

“How about getting some pokemon capturing training?” Keith suggested.

“Good idea. Shall we head out now?” Kate asked and the others nodded before they all headed out.


	3. Ranger Union

Hours had passed since the four rangers and their respective pokemon partners went out practicing by capturing wild pokemon with their stylers and releasing them back. The sky was getting darker as it was almost nighttime and the rangers headed back to the Union. The four rangers were walking towards the door when Lunick suddenly remembered something.

“Keith, I just noticed something,” Lunick turned to Keith, “Does the Union have a place to eat, like a cafeteria or something?”

Solana sighed and face palmed, “Should you be asking about that out of the blue? It’s really embarrassing, you know...”

“Well, that’s my brother for you...” Kate commented, making Lunick let out a quiet growl.

“Nah, I don’t think it’s that embarrassing... The top rangers before us asked the same question and were surprised when they entered the Union around this hour,” Keith explained before they entered the building.

The Fiore rangers gasped at the sudden change to the main room on the ground floor. Though the change wasn’t that much on the appearance, the main room had a change in its function for the rangers.

The counter where the operators were working was filled with many selections of dishes. On the left and right sides of the counter, there were tables and chairs lined up where other rangers and operators were sitting and chatting. The room had changed from a field information and styler recharging place to a cafeteria.

“At first I thought about this as a stupid idea, but I finally understand why the cafeteria was placed here after I took a tour in the whole building,” Keith started.

“What do you mean?” Solana asked, turning to the younger male ranger.

Keith opened his mouth to speak, but Kate was the one who answered, “There’s a tree that must never be cut down on the roof, so there’s no way we can add another floor for a cafeteria...”

“What kind of tree?” Lunick asked.

“How about we check it out later after dinner?” Keith suggested, getting nods from the two older rangers.

“Sounds great!” Lunick exclaimed.

The four of them went over to the food counter and looked at the food on display. They took a plate of food each and a bowl of pokemon food for their partner pokemon before sitting on a nearby table.

The table was made of fine wood, painted in yellow and light brown. It was rectangle shaped with four wooden chairs around it. The wooden chairs were all painted yellow.

Lunick sat next to Solana, and across them were Keith and Kate. They sat together and had a small talk while they were eating. Their partner pokemon ate their dinner quietly under the yellow and light brown wooden table.

Once they were done, they put their empty plates on their empty plates on the far most right corner counter along with other people’s plates. They put their partner pokemon’s empty food bowl on the left corner counter. They took the escalator to the rooftop on the third floor.

The area was dark with dim light from the full moon. In the middle of the area, there was a huge tree whose leaves covered almost the entire rooftop area which caused them to block most of the moonlight.

“This is the tree that I told you guys about,” Kate turned to Lunick and Solana, “This tree is called the Tree of Life.”

“It’s huge!” Lunick commented as he looked up at the tree.

“Mai! Mai!” Minun climbed to Lunick’s head and stood on it while looking at the huge tree.

“Now I think I understand why it can’t be cut down... It’s not possible to cut down the whole tree!” Solana said, but Keith shook his head.

“No, that’s not the real reason. The Union strictly forbids anyone from cutting down the tree,” Keith told them, “But no one told us why we can’t cut it down. I think it has something to do with its main function which only a few senior top rangers know.”

“Oh, I see...” Solana turned to the tree, “I think I can feel the soothing aura coming out from the tree...”

“Come on, it’s getting late. We should turn in for the day just in case the professor needs us to do something,” Keith, Lunick, and Solana turned to see Kate impatiently waiting by the escalator along with her partner pokemon, Pachirisu.

“Okay, we’re coming!” Keith turned to Lunick and Solana, “Come on, the dorms are on the first floor next to the briefing room and the lab.”

“Okay,” Lunick and Solana replied in unison before they followed Keith and Kate to the dorms on the first floor.

It was almost nine in the evening. Unlike before, there were some rangers chatting in the room near their dorms. It was still bright as the lights were still turned on. The four of them stopped in front of the briefing room with the boys in front of the girls.

“Well, this is our stop. The boys’ dorm is on the left side of the briefing room while the girls’ dorm is on the right side,” Kate turned to Solana, “Let’s go, Solana! We can share a room!” Kate grabbed Solana’s right arm and ran towards the girls’ dorm.

Keith and Lunick were still standing on their place in the room while watching Pachirisu and Plusle running after their female rangers when Keith suddenly let out a sigh.

“Sheesh... I thought that Kate wasn’t going back to her old cheerful self!” Keith turned to Lunick, “Come on, you’re going to share a room with me and Kellyn, aren’t you?”

“Well, I guess... I don’t know much about the Union anyway...” Lunick said while shrugging before he and Minun followed Keith and Buizel to the boys’ dorm.

The boys’ dorm consisted of four rooms with the doors blue colored, two rooms on each side. On the other hand, the girls’ dorm had three rooms, one on the left and two on the right with all doors in red color.

The boys opened the first door on the left side of the corridor to find Kellyn sleeping on the lower bunk of the bunk bed in the left corner of the room and a messy single bed on the right side of the room.

“Man, I forgot to make my bed this morning!” Keith said in panic, “Oh man, I’m so done for if the professor finds out!” Keith turned to Lunick, “Please don’t tell anyone about this! And I hope you don’t mind sleeping on the top bunk as well!”

“No worries, bro! Not even a word and no, I don’t mind at all!” Lunick put a hand on the younger ranger’s shoulder and calmed him down.

“Thanks! I owe you one! Night bro!” Keith let out a relieved sigh and walked over to his messy bed as all their partner pokemon fell asleep in the right corner of the room.

Meanwhile in Kate’s room, Solana and Kate were lying on their beds while talking. There was only a bunk bed and Solana was on the lower bunk while Kate was on the top bunk of the bed.

“Wow... It must be great living in Hoenn...” Solana commented.

“Yeah, but not after Kyogre and Groudon started battling in the middle of the city’s lake. It was such a nightmare to lose our parents during the battle....” Kate frowned and rolled to the side, “Since then, we lived on our own until Lunick decided to become a pokemon ranger four years ago...”

“Oh... I see...” It was Solana’s turn to frown, “Lunick has never actually told me or Leader Spenser about his past, but now I understand why he refused to talk about it.”

“That’s my brother for you. He usually tries solving all his problems by himself and always acts tough in front of everyone, so that’s why I’ve always looked up to him,” Kate stated.

“But I know you’re tough as well. You don’t want to lose to your brother by becoming a ranger and you eventually saved Almia by capturing Darkrai. Am I right?” Solana asked.

“Yeah...” Kate smiled, “Thanks, Solana...” Kate got up from her bed and peeked on the lower bunk, “I guess I should say... soon to be sister in law!”

“N-No! We haven’t thought about our relationship that far yet!” Solana’s face turned red and got up as she waved her hands in front of her.

“But you want to, right?” Kate teased with a sly grin on her face.

Solana, being unable to deny the words, pulled her covers and lied back down, “GOOD. NIGHT!”

“You’re no fun...” Kate lied back on her bed and pulled her covers, “Good night.”


	4. Tower Investigation

It was late at night. The lights around the Union have all been turned off, except for the ones in Professor Hastings’ lab. He was looking at a big screen which showed purple wave lines going up and down sharply, and then normal. The professor saw that the shadow crystal inside the capsule shaped machine connected to the computer with wires glow faintly when the wave lines became sharp and faded when the lines turned normal.

“The sharp lines resemble a human’s heart beat... It’s as if the crystal actually lives...” Professor Hastings turned to the crystal, which was glowing and fading simultaneously. “What could be the meaning of this? What kind of secret this crystal could hold?”

The next day, the four rangers along with their pokemon partners gathered in the meeting room. Other than the four, there were two more rangers who looked older than the two of them.

One of them was a man with a red cowboy hat and black hair. He was wearing a red scarf around his neck and a collared red and white shirt and pants with the same color. His shoes were black and red colored.

The other ranger was a woman with long green hair. She wore a similar outfit as the man’s, but her sleeves were longer and she wore a skirt instead of pants. Both of them had their stylers attached to their right arms.

“Sven and Wendy, it’s such a good thing that you made it back from the tower unharmed,” Professor Hastings started, “I need you all to investigate inside the tower, which might be crawling with rampaging wild pokemon.”

“And that’s all?” The man, Sven, asked, “Is the shadow crystal somehow related to something that’s in the tower?”

“It could be, but what I really want to know is whether the old Team Dim Sun members or the Sinis Trio had hidden a classified information in the database,” Professor Hastings slammed his stick to the floor, “That is all! I wish you all luck and come back in one piece!”

“YES SIR!” Everyone except for Lunick and Solana saluted.

“Okay, I’ll get my Staraptor to call his friends,” The woman, Wendy, stated. She turned to the four younger rangers, “You four should prepare yourselves and make sure that your stylers function properly.”

“Okay, we got it covered!” Keith replied cheerfully before turning back to the gang, “Let’s recharge the stylers on the ground floor before we go!”

The six of them went to the ground floor and the four younger rangers ran towards the recharging counter to recharge their stylers while Sven and Wendy stepped outside. Once they were all done, they stepped outside as well to find Sven and Wendy along with six Staraptor around the Union’s field. Wendy was petting one of them when she saw the four came out of the building.

“We’re all set with the Staraptor for you to ride to the tower. Are you ready to go?” Wendy asked.

“We’re all set, but which way are we heading to?” Lunick asked as he looked around.

“The Altru Tower is on top of Altru building, which is north from the park. Don’t worry though, we’ve told the Staraptor which way to go,” Sven answered before he and Wendy rode on their Staraptor.

“Come on, we’ll land on the platform near the tower entrance,” Wendy’s Staraptor flapped his wings and flew away, followed by the others.

The gang flew above the trees until they came across the park. They turned to the northern side of the park, heading towards a very tall tower. Their Staraptor flew higher until they found a small platform which connected the building and the tower. They landed on the platform and the Staraptor, except for one, flew away after dropping off the rangers.

“Thanks everyone!” Wendy waved at the flying Staraptor before turning back to the others.

“Okay, here’s the plan: us guys will be staying behind the girls in case wild pokemon attacked from behind,” Sven told the gang, “And if things get worse, I’ll have my Luxray blindfold them.”

“Okay, got it!” Keith went to the door and followed by the others, “Let’s go everyone!”

As they entered, a group of agitated wild pokemon was waiting for them. The rangers had their stylers ready while their partner pokemon were all in front of them, ready to assist their respective rangers. Another group came from upstairs, which pushed the rangers back towards the door they came from.

“There are too many of them! We won’t be able to capture all of them!” Keith stated, getting a nod from Kate.

“Luxray!” Sven called and his black furred tiger like pokemon partner came out from his side to the front, facing the wild pokemon, “Use your Flash!”

“Luxray!” Luxray formed a bright orb made of electricity in its mouth before shooting it at the ceiling. The orb exploded as it made contact with the ceiling, causing a flash of light which brightened the whole room.

“Come on, this way!” Sven led the gang through an opening and went upstairs. As the gang was going up, Sven stayed behind and waited for Luxray to come to the stairs.

The other five rangers with their pokemon partners climbed the next three sets of stairs and found other floors to be empty. They climbed the fourth set of stairs, which was the final set before the top floor and found something that they hadn’t been expecting at all.

A group of Magneton, Rhydon, Alakazam, Ampharos, Primape, Arcanine, and Vaporeon was lining up while facing a big chunk of clear crystal. Just below the crystal, two Alakazam had their spoons in their hands raised to the air. Between them, a man in black stood.

He had his entire body covered in a black coat with a hood. A part of his face was seen to be covered by a black mask. Some of his golden spiky hair popped out of his black hood. The man noticed the rangers coming and quickly turned to the Alakazam on his left.

“Quick! Teleport away!” The man ordered, not noticing that he had dropped something from his hand before he and the big crystal disappeared.

“Darn, he got away!” Lunick stated angrily.

“And he left us some company...” Wendy added, her left hand ready on her styler.

“Not good... we can’t possibly capture all of them,” Keith turned back to the stairs, “Sven hasn’t come back with his Luxray as well...”

Just then, thunder struck down the platform in the middle. Luxray landed where the thunder struck down afterwards. The five turned to the direction where Luxray jumped from and found a Staraptor with a person on its back. The Staraptor dove down and the older ranger with a cowboy hat jumped down from its back.

“Sorry it took so long to catch up with you guys! I decided to reach up here with the help from Staraptor so I could get here before those wild pokemon ambush you for no reason!” Sven told them before turning to Luxray, who was running towards the group.

The wild pokemon in the area looked around, feeling confused. Each of them suddenly started walking towards the stairs while the Alakazam teleported away, leaving the six rangers on the empty platform.

“W-What happened? I thought that they were going to attack us!” Kate asked.

“The flash from Luxray’s Thunder attack had turned them back for some reason. I noticed this when I was leaving the first floor of the tower after I had Luxray use Flash on them,” Sven explained.

“Bui! Bui!” Keith turned to his partner, Buizel, who was on the ranger’s feet and had something in its mouth. It was black colored and shaped like a gun, but it had an antenna instead of a trigger. There was also no place to put in the bullets and had a parabolic end.

“What’s this? Some kind of weapon?” Keith asked, taking a brief look at the gun like device.

“From what it looks like, I think that’s the device used to control the wild pokemon. It uses faint dark energy which was controlled by the antenna, it seems...” Sven explained, “Kellyn’s short description was a match to this device.”

“Why don’t we have the professor take a closer look at it?” Kate suggested, getting a nod from Keith.

“I don’t think it’s such a bad idea... Don’t you agree, Lunick?” Solana turned to Lunick, who was looking at the place where the big chunk of crystal had been, “Are you okay?”

“Wha...? I mean... it’s fine! I’m okay!” Lunick replied in panic, “I just felt as if someone or something whispered to me...”

“Come on, you’re probably just dreaming!” Solana commented with a smile.

As they were leaving, Kate took another look at the place,  _‘Lunick’s not kidding... This is just like that time in Altru building when I visited it for the first time... Something bad is about to happen here!’_


	5. Night Talk

After the gang left the tower, they decided to go back to the Union by riding wild Doduo. The sun was setting when they arrived and the Union building was covered by an orange colored blanket of light.

The six rangers went into the building and reported before they had their dinner as the food had already been prepared. They went to their rooms afterwards to rest earlier after such a long and hard day.

“Finally! It’s time for bed!” Kate exclaimed happily as she climbed to the top bunk of the bed.

“We’d better get some rest so that we’re ready for anything that will be waiting for us tomorrow,” Solana sat on the lower bunk and lied down, “By the way, do you mind telling me what happened to you and your brother after your parents passed away during the battle between Kyogre and Groudon?”

Kate hesitated for a moment and let out a sigh, “Okay, as my brother’s most trusted human partner, you deserve to know about our past,” Kate leaned against the wall while sitting on her bed before she started with her story.

_**-Flashback-** _

_**-Kate’s POV-** _

_It happened so suddenly. The sky was clear just a few minutes ago, but now it was filled with either dark storm clouds or the burning heat of the sun. The weather changed into stormy rain every time the ancient pokemon of the sea roared, and it changed again into sunny every time the ancient pokemon of the land roared._

_I just sat there, with my brother standing beside me on the damp grass field. We just watched as the two ancient pokemon, Kyogre and Groudon, battled each other while causing damage to the used to be peaceful city of Sootopolis._

“ _Lunick! Kate! You two, get inside!” Our father called out for us, but we froze in place._

“ _Jacob! You get the kids inside while I block the incoming attacks!” The woman with dark blue hair yelled at the brown haired man._

“ _Come on, you two have to stay inside! It’s dangerous out here!” Our father took our hands and took us back to the house. We watched as our father ran back outside._

“ _Cameryn! I’ll help!” Our father’s yelling was heard._

_We peeked out through the window and saw our parents with their faithful pokemon partners. Our father, Jacob, with his Swampert and our mother, Cameryn, with her Raichu. As Sootopolis’ strongest pokemon trainers, it was undoubted that they would choose the perfect timing to strike with their powerful moves._

_The bright sun was soon covered with storm clouds by the roar from Kyogre and the rain started pouring heavily. Our parents looked at each other and nodded. It was the perfect timing for both of them to launch their attacks._

“ _Swampert, Hydro Pump on Groudon!” The pokemon shot out water with strong current at Groudon, making it roar in pain._

“ _Use Thunder on Kyogre!” Raichu charged electricity on its cheeks before releasing it at the sea basin pokemon, also making it roar in pain._

_**-Normal POV-** _

_The two ancient pokemon roared angrily after receiving some damage from the attacks. The loud roars caused the ground to shake as the people who were watching the battle helplessly covered their ears. Just then, both pokemon charged a Hyper Beam attack each while aiming at the couple._

_Both shots hit the ground hard, creating some black some which covered the whole field. After the smoke was gone, the green damp field was replaced with rocks and dust, while the two elite trainers were nowhere to be seen._

_It was a nightmare to them. Even though they were both old enough to take care of themselves, losing both parents at the same time in a very tragic event was such a hard beating for the young siblings._

_The rain poured down even heavier while both pokemon calmed down all of the sudden. The sea basin pokemon, Kyogre, dived down as the land continent pokemon, Groudon, climbed the mountain rocks surrounding the city._

_The city was a total mess. With the gym leader’s absence, nearly half of the city was destroyed within minutes. Many houses were destroyed by the ancient pokemon’s attacks and a few residents were injured. It was an unforgettable horrible memory for Sootopolis City and its surviving residents._

_**-End of Flashback-** _

“Oh, it was so tragic... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked...” Solana felt sorry as she noticed that Kate went silent after telling her about hers and Lunick’s past.

“No, it’s fine!” Kate peeked down from the top bunk with a smile, but Solana could see that there was some sadness hidden within the smile, “Even with our parents gone, at least my brother and I still have each other... until he decided to become a pokemon ranger.”

“So then, you two lived on your own after the incident? You don’t have any other relatives?” Solana asked.

“No, we don’t have any. Our grandparents had also passed away before my brother was born,” Kate replied as she lied back on the bed.

“I see... I’ve never expected you and Lunick to have such a horrible memory... But I guess now I know why he always works so hard to become a great pokemon ranger, which is to prevent others from experiencing the same nightmare as he did...” Solana commented.

“That’s very typical of him for sure!” Kate got up suddenly, making Solana peek to the top bunk in surprise.

“Has he always been like that?” Solana asked curiously.

“Yeah!” Kate looked down at Solana, “He’s always so kind and nice towards other people and pokemon, but he can be such an annoying overprotective brother!”

Solana chuckled after hearing the word ‘overprotective brother’, “Well, don’t you think that’s what older brothers do? I mean, they want their sisters to be safe, right?”

“I guess you got a point there, Solana...” Kate let out a defeated sigh, and then suddenly remembered something which made her grin slyly, “Solana, do you want to know about Lunick’s biggest secret that he had never told anyone about?”

“What? Lunick still has another secret that I don’t know about?” Solana exclaimed in surprise.

“Yup, and it’s a very embarrassing one!” Kate grinned slyly, “He... sleeps... with... a teddy bear!”

“R-Really? But how did you know?” Solana asked, laughing.

“I had sneaked into his room to get my stuff back after he hid it away in his room... Too bad I didn’t have my video camera with me that time!” Kate lied back on her bed while laughing as Solana did the same also.

The two girls laughed for some time until they were both tired from the laughing and calmed down. The girls’ bedroom was quiet, only the sound of their loud breathing could be heard until Solana spoke up.

“Even if it’s funny... it’s not nice... to enter someone’s room without permission...” Solana said between her breaths.

“I know... And it was my fault in the first place... If I had listened to him... and put my magazines back in their places... then he wouldn’t have put them away from me...” Kate replied, still breathing loudly from the laughing before.

“Let’s just go to sleep now, okay? We don’t know what kind of crisis we’ll face tomorrow...” Solana pulled her blanket up.

“Yeah, you’re right... Good night,” Kate pulled her blanket and turned to face the wall, “Oh yeah, Solana?”

“Yes?”

“Please don’t talk to Lunick about the teddy bear... If he knows, then he’ll kill me for sure!”

Solana smiled, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him. Good night to you too, Kate...”


	6. Old Enemies Return

It was 8 o’clock in the morning and the rangers were called to the briefing room. Kate, Solana, Lunick, Keith, the almost fully recovered Kellyn, and another ranger who was unfamiliar to Lunick and Solana were all in the briefing room.

The ranger was a big man with a thick moustache. He wore a ranger uniform jacket similar to Kate’s and Keith’s, but he had an L shaped styler in his pocket instead, unlike Kate’s and Keith’s who had theirs attached to their right arms.

“I’m sorry to call you early in the morning, but I’m afraid we have an emergency,” Professor Hastings, who had just come into the room, said as he walked to the middle of the room where the rangers were.

“What seems to be the problem here, Professor?” Kellyn asked politely.

“The three gems from the tower have been confirmed to be in the enemy’s hand!” Professor Hastings slammed his stick to the floor and surprised the rangers, “I got a report from Sven and Wendy whom I sent last night to recheck the tower. I had asked them to investigate the places where those gems were found years ago for any hidden secrets which might be the reason why the enemy has them now.”

“I suppose it’s such a bad case that it’s hard even for the top rangers to handle... Professor, is this why I was called in the first place?” The man asked.

“Yes... Barlow, I want you to assist Lunick and Solana, Rank 10 rangers from Fiore region in the investigation to the ruins where the shadow crystals used to be mined by Team Dim Sun,” Professor Hastings ordered.

“Yes, sir!” The man, Barlow, saluted.

“Keith, Kate, and Kellyn will recheck the tower for any other clues. Good luck with your investigations, rangers!” Professor Hastings ordered, “Kellyn, you need to be careful as you haven’t fully recovered from your injuries. Don’t go into unecessary battles if you aren’t ready.”

“Okay, I’ll be careful. Thank you for your concern, Professor,” Kellyn bowed politely to the professor, “I’m counting on you two as well, Keith and Kate.”

“No problem, my friend!” Keith put an arm around him and patted his shoulder, “You can count on us! That’s what friends do, right?”

“Yes, thank you...” Kellyn smiled as Keith let go of him, “Let’s head for the tower!”

“Let’s go!” Kate yelled enthusiasticly and her partner Pachirisu did the same as her ranger.

Six Staraptor landed in front of the building as the six rangers went outside. Lunick, Solana, and Barlow took three Staraptor and took off to the east where the ruins were. Keith, Kate, and Kellyn took off to the Altru Tower on the north.

The young Almian rangers landed on top of the tower, where the clear crystal and the three gems used to be. The clear crystal was still gone and the man from the day before was there, possibly waiting for their arrival.

“Heh... I guess the boss was right! You are gonna come if I steal the gems and crystal from this tower!” The man started.

“Don’t tell me we went straight into a trap!” Keith stated, “What do you want, mysterious man in black?”

“Call me with my great title: Rook! I come to announce war against you all ranger kids! Team GRSN will blast you to nothing!” The man told the rangers while pointing at them angrily, but the three of them went silent due to confusion.

“This guy has some strange way of talking... Don’t you think he sounds familiar?” Keith whispered to Kate, “And what’s GRSN anyway?”

“Beats me... I really don’t get what he’s trying to say about war... He’s completely unarmed!” Kate whispered back and noticed that Kellyn had walked a few steps ahead of them and stopped.

“Mr. Rook, if it’s war you’ve wished for, then do you mind telling me what bad deeds we have done?” Kelly asked.

“Sorry, kid! Ain’t gonna tell ya! But know this we will destroy ya and rule the world!” The man, Rook, said, “Try stop us, but no use!”

“There’s no way we’re going to lose!” Keith responded angrily, “We have Kate on our side! I’ll tell you that she’s such a great ranger that she could capture a Darkrai! With my help as well, of course!”

‘ _Stop flattering me, Keith! You’re making me embarrassed!’_ Kate covered her flustered face and turned away.

“Whatever kid... None of you will have a chance beating GRSN!” Rook said, and a pokemon’s cry was heard.

The pokemon was revealed to be a Dragonite, who landed hard on the ground next to Rook. He climbed to its back and the Dragonite took off. It hovered a few meters above the rangers as Rook glared at them.

“My minions! Ambush the rangers!” Rook commanded as he flew away with Dragonite.

An army of wild pokemon came from the stairs, agitated for some reason. The rangers got their stylers ready and backed away towards the place where the clear crystal and the three gems used to be, only to find that they would be dealing with a huge army of them as more and more pokemon came from below.

“We don’t have much choice! We have to capture all of them!” Kate suggested, firing her capture disk. The two male rangers nodded and did the same as well.

Meanwhile in the ruins, Lunick, Solana, and Barlow landed near the entrance to the ruins’ area. They found the runis to be in such a bad shape. The ground covering the ruins underground was almost no more, revealing the rocky walls of the underground ruins. On the northeast of the area, a man with short light blue hair was waiting for them.

“What happened here? It looks like dynamites blew this whole place!” Lunick commented, getting a tug on his sleeve from Solana.

“Look over there! There are Voltorb everywhere!” Solana pointed at the ruins below them, where many Voltorb and some Electrode were rolling around on the ground.

“That guy must be using the poor creatures to destroy the ground for easier access!” Barlow stated, “But this isn’t the first time I see something like this...”

“What do you mean, uh... Barlow, right?” Lunick asked.

“I’ve been captured and taken to a ship by an enemy years ago. I saw many Voltorb were used as living denotators to protect that ship from intruders,” Barlow explained.

“That’s so cruel...” Solana stated as she noticed that Lunick was getting angry and suddenly he dashed quickly towards the man, “Lunick, wait!”

Lunick ignored her and kept running with his Minun trying to keep up with him. Solana and Barlow followed him also into the destroyed ruins. They all stopped at the back area on the northeast side where the man was with a Houndoom next to him.

“Too late, rangers! I’m already done gathering the remaining shadow crystals, so I don’t have any point staying here any longer!” The man said as a flying pokemon hovered above him, “I, the Knight, shall leave this place for the Voltorb and Electrode to destroy!” The man, Knight, pulled out a ball shaped red and white capsule, “Houndoom, return! Flygon, let’s go back to the HQ!”

“Wait... Ah!” Lunick went after him, but was knocked down by a Voltorb.

“Lunick! Are you okay?” Solana asked as she helped Lunick stand up.

“I’m fine, but I don’t think we would if we don’t do something about them!” Lunick turned to the agitated Voltorb and Electrode.

“They’re just like what I had seen in Vien Forest!” Barlow started, “They are agitated for no reason!”

“Lunick, we need to have Plusle and Minun use Spark on the walls! The bright flash will wake them up!” Solana suggested and Lunick nodded.

“Plusle, Minun! Use Spark on the walls!” Lunick and Solana ordered. The two pokemon did as their rangers’ order and bright flash covered a small area around them.

A few hours later, the six rangers had returned to the Union to report to Professor Hastings. Keith, Kate, and Kellyn had dust all over them and badly thorn uniform while Lunick, Solana, and Barlow had burn marks from electricity and very tired Plusle and Minun on their respective rangers’ heads.

“I see...” Professor Hastings nodded after hearing the rangers’ reports, “Mysterious men called Rook and Knight showed up and a new enemy called ‘GRSN’... The use of shadow crystals after being confirmed to be no more, but we still haven’t got a clue about the gems yet and then the clear crystal was missing as well...”

“Something bad’s going to happen, I’m sure of it!” Keith said.

“Yes, but for now it’s best to rest up. Let’s hope we have some more news tomorrow,” Professor Hastings replied.

The rangers left to their dorms, leaving Professor Hastings alone in his lab.

‘ _GRSN... They have finally made their move...’_


	7. Dark Tower

The next morning, all experienced rangers were gathered in the meeting room. There were new faces for Lunick and Solana, but not for Keith, Kate, and Kellyn who had been working as rangers in Almia for years.

“Crawford! Luana!” Kate ran over to them, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Kate! Is that you? I believe you’ve been a lot of dangerous missions as a top ranger, right?” The woman with short black hair said.

“Well, kinda...” Kate replied shortly with a smile, “By the way, what are you and Crawford doing here anyway?”

“We got a call from the prof yesterday and Leader needs our help as well. Man! This is taking my time to improve my jokes!” The ranger with afro hair, Crawford, complained.

“Oh, I see... Okay, I’ll see Professor Hastings first and ask him what’s going on. See you later!” Kate waved at Luana and Crawford as she walked down through the elevator and headed towards Professor Hastings’ lab, leaving the other four rangers.

“Professor! What is going on here? Why are there so many rangers in the meeting room?” Kate asked immediately after she opened the doors with her card key.

“I’m afraid to say that the past might be repeating itself....” Professor Hastings didn’t look at Kate, but instead he was looking at the shadow crystal in the capsule from before.

“What do you mean...? Did Darkrai go mad again?” Kate asked worriedly.

“Professor! Bad news!” Keith ran into the lab and stopped in front of the two, panting, “We... saw the tower... covered... by dark clouds...”

“What!? Does that mean...” Kate turned to Professor Hastings.

“Yes, Darkrai has something to do with it,” Professor Hastings nodded, “But this time it’s much worse than what happened before as it was fully controlled by the darkness ‘planted’ by the device you gave me after giving me your report the other day.”

“I knew it! I have already had a bad feeling about that gun-like thing!” Keith exclaimed, “So now we’ll take those rangers to fight in the tower, right?”

“Half correct, young man! We’ll have most of the rangers help with the employees’ evacuation and secure the surrounding areas for any affected wild pokemon. If you excuse me, I’ll announce the plan to the other rangers in the meeting room.” Professor Hastings said before he walked out of his lab.

Kate and Keith followed the professor as he walked out of his lab and headed towards the meeting room upstairs. Professor Hastings walked in front of the crowd of rangers while Keith and Kate walked into the crowd to meet up again with Lunick and Solana.

“May I have your attention, please?” The whole room went silent as all eyes were fixed on Professor Hastings, “Some might be aware of the strange things happening in the Altru Tower for the past few days. So I’ll ask most of you to help with evacuating the employees in the tower.”

“I’ll also ask some of you to help with the fight in the tower,” Professor Hastings continued, “Those rangers will take Staraptor to the platform on the top floor of the building, where the Altru Building and the Altru Tower are connected. They are Kate, Keith, Kellyn, Barlow, Luana, Crawford, Lunick, and Solana. The rest will be in charge of the evacuation and securing the surrounding area from wilp pokemon. I wish you all luck!”

The crowd dismissed, leaving to do their assigned tasks. Only eight rangers mentioned before who still stayed in the room to hear any further instruction from Professor Hastings.

“The eight of you will be doing the most dangerous task. You have to climb to the top of the tower because of the evil aura there. There’s no doubt that the whole tower will be full of agitated wild pokemon, so all of you need to be careful,” Professor Hastings said as the eight of them saluted before leaving.

The eight of them flew to the top of Altru Building on Staraptor, landing safely. They went inside and took the first set of stairs, only to find a group of wild pokemon blocking them on the way to the second set of stairs on the tower’s first floor.

“Wild pokemon! And there’s a lot of them!” Keith commented, getting his styler ready.

“Everyone, go on ahead!” Luana came forward, “I’ll take care of them!”

“I’ll help as well!” Crawford came to Luana’s side, “Roselia! Let’s paralyze them with your Stun Spore!”

The Roselia jumped into the air above the wild pokemon and spun his body as yellow colored spores came out from the roses on his hands. The spore covered the wild pokemon and they became paralyzed and slow moving.

“Lopunny, frezee their feet to the ground!” Luana commanded as a brown bunny-like pokemon came out from her back with a blue beam in her mouth. She shot out the blue beam on the ground, pinning the paralyzed pokemon to the ground.

‘ _Wow... Their partners have even evolved...’_ Kate thought in amazement, “Thanks Luana and Crawford!”

The remaining six rangers carefully walked through the wild pokemon, heading towards the second set of stairs. They went up to the second floor, only to find another group of wild pokemon coming from the next floor.

“Another group, eh?” Barlow stepped forward, “I’ll take care of them!” His partner pokemon, Makuhita, came out from behind him, “Let’s give them the taste of our combined strength!”

“I’ll join the fight as well, Leader!” Kellyn stepped forward as well, with his partner, Pachirisu, on his shoulder.

“Leader... but...” Kate tried to argue, but was cut off by Barlow.

“I believe I’ve taught you back then when you’re still a student that you shouldn’t let down someone who had risked their lives for you and that you mustn’t be a coward, right?” Barlow asked.

“Right... I... I understand...” Kate turned to the others, “Let’s go...”

The four remaining rangers went up to the third floor as Barlow’s Makuhita and Kellyn’s Pachirisu had made them an opening. When they were heading towards the stairs to the final floor before the top, a few tougher pokemon were blocking the way.

Lunick and Keith, who were standing behind the girls, exchanged glances before nodding to each other. They both stepped forward and their partner pokemon, Minun and Buizel, were both ready to fight.

“It’s time for the pro rangers to step into the battle!” Keith declared proudly, “Kate, you go ahead! Save the world, er... Almia I mean...”

“Keith...” Kate looked at Keith thoroughly as his expression showed the unbeatable determination he always had.

“Solana, take care of my sister!” Lunick told Solana.

“Okay, I will,” Solana turned to Lunick, then to Kate, “Come on, let’s go!”

Kate silently nodded, following Solana as both of them climbed the stairs to an empty floor. They took the final set of stairs to the top of the tower, which was as dark as the night sky with such an awful and strong feeling of evil aura.

“This is just like how it was when I first captured Darkrai...” Kate looked around, “But it didn’t have such a threatening aura like this...”

“Kate, is that... Darkrai?” The girls looked in front of them and saw a silhouette of a pokemon shape which was almost like a floating person.

The pokemon revealed itself to have glowing red eyes. It had a light purple head and a dark purple body, with a neck shaped like a black scarf blown by the wind. The pokemon flew closer to the girls slowly, its glowing eyes locked on the female rangers.

Kate gulped nervously and pointed her styler at the pokemon. Solana did the same, and noticed that her Plusle, who was on her shoulder, looked terrified. She looked at Kate’s Pachirisu, who was terrified as well.

“Is that really Darkrai?” Kate asked back to Solana.

‘ _...elp...’_

“Huh?” Kate looked around to find the source of the familiar voice.

‘ _Kate... help...’_ The voice became clearer in Kate’s mind.

‘ _It’s my brother’s and Keith’s voices! But where did they come from?’_


	8. Capture On!

‘Help us...’ There were more voices echoing in Kate’s mind, making her more confused.

“Kate, do you hear people calling for help?” Solana asked.

“You heard that too?” Kate turned to Solana in surprise.

“Well, well, well… Who do we have here?” Two figures came out from the dark clouds in the sky, both dressed in black, riding on pokemon.

The pokemon landed in front of the rangers, right beside Darkrai. The men riding on the two pokemon jumped down to reveal themselves. A big man with a black mask jumped down from a pokemon similar to a Dragonite, but its body was black instead.

The strange Dragonite had black body and purple wings. Its chest, body, and lower part of the tail were all the original color. Unlike Darkrai, it had glowing yellow eyes.

The other one was about the rangers’ age, who jumped down from an odd colored Flygon. It had dark grey and dark purple tail, bluish purple eyes, a grey body, and a black head.

“Rook! So you’re behind these pokemon attacks!” Kate said angrily.

“Knight…” Solana became angry as well, “You won’t get away with this! You’re hurting the poor creatures!”

“Hurting?” Knight smiled evilly, “They’re meant to be hurt! They fight for the sake of people as tools! You think that you’re better at taking care of pokemon just because you’re pokemon rangers!? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Chill out, Knight!” Rook put a hand on Knight’s shoulder, “Let’s get Darkrai to do the talks for us!”

Knight turned to Rook with an annoyed look, but finally sighed in defeat, “Fine… Do you have the controller?”

“Here!” Rook handed him the controller, which was similar to a handheld with a GRSN logo on the back.

“Darkrai! You will do as I command!” Knight declared, “Destroy those rangers! Swallow them into the world of darkness! To the world of nothingness and despair!”

The Darkrai flew over to the rangers and flew higher, leaving a trace of his shadow which got bigger and created a big black hole under the rangers’ feet.

“Kate! Watch out!” Solana quickly pushed Kate out of the way, causing the black hole to take her instead, “Plusle! You help Kate capture Darkrai!” Her partner looked at her ranger with worry and hesitation before finally jumping away from her shoulder to safety.

“Not you too, Solana…” Kate looked sadly as she saw Solana being sucked away by the black hole.

“Your only option to save her and your comrades is to capture Darkrai!” Knight told Kate, “But you won’t stand a chance! You’ll only be devoured by the dark negative energy trapped in these dark clouds!”

“No… not my brother too…!” Kate fell to her knees, _‘Keith, Kellyn, and the others too… Why does this have to happen again? This… nightmare…’_ Tears started falling down from her face.

‘ _You can do it!’_

‘ _That voice…’_ Kate paused for a moment, _‘Is that Keith?’_

‘ _You must be able to do it! You’re my sister after all!’_

‘ _Lunick, I…’_ Kate rose back to her feet, _‘I can do it! I’ll save you all!’_

Kate pointed her styler at Darkrai, “Capture ON!” The capture disk was shot out from her styler and was spinning around Darkrai. Darkrai noticed it and tried knocking it away by creating shadow blades from its arms by swinging them around.

Plusle, who was at Kate’s side, quickly dashed towards Darkrai and rammed him with a high speed. Pachirisu soon joined in the fight, letting blue electricity out to the whole field and hit not just Darkrai, but Dragonite and the unaffected Flygon as well.

Darkrai slowly got up after taking some damage from the attacks and saw the capture disk was spinning around him again. It created a black shockwave which cracked the floor and caused the capture disk to be blown away.

Kate checked her styler and saw that the capture disk had taken heavy damage from the shockwave. She turned to the two electric pokemon and saw that they were ready to go again. The two pokemon were no longer terrified, but instead they were determined to help her.

“Plusle! Pachirisu! Spark on Darkrai!” Kate ordered. Electricity began covering their small bodies before they charged at Darkrai.

Darkrai took the damage directly and endured it, making it able to stay in its place instead of being knocked away like the last time. The two pokemon jumped back to the female ranger as she saw that some electricity was left on Darkrai’s body.

‘ _It’s paralyzed! Now’s my chance!’_ Kate led her capture disk to spin around Darkrai while it was trying to move its body out of the way.

“Not so fast, ranger!” Knight pushed a few buttons on the controller and a red aura surrounded Darkrai.

Darkrai roared in pain, the electricity on his body disappeared. It tried to fight off the pain, but it couldn’t resist the power put into his body which caused it to be in so much pain. It sent out many shadow blades everywhere in rage and pain.

The sky became darker as black fog slowly covered the field. The area was so dark that it was almost like a night without the moon. The only things Kate could see were Darkrai’s glowing eyes and three glowing objects. They were glowing in red, blue, and yellow colors.

“What the…?” Rook’s voice was heard, “I have glowing cape! What is these gems anyway?”

“Don’t tell me that they’re reacting to the shadow crystal! Quick, destroy those gems!” Knight ordered.

Rook took the gems from his pocket and threw them hard to the ground. Just before they were going to hit the ground, the gems shone brightly and flew away towards Kate instead of hitting the ground.

The gems floated around Kate, each of them shone brightly. They spun around her for a moment, brightening the whole area in the process. Kate’s styler shone in response and the four lights combined into one, entering the styler afterwards.

‘ _This is just like that time…’_ Kate looked at her styler, _‘My heart should reach Darkrai now…’_

Kate led her capture disk around Darkrai once more, and surprisingly it stayed still and let itself get captured. Knight was getting annoyed as Darkrai wasn’t responding to his commands. He angrily threw the controller to the ground, breaking it and signaled Rook to get ready to escape.

The two men in black had already climbed up to their respective dragon pokemon when Darkrai glowed in bright white light, showing that the capture had been completed.

“We’ll get you next time, ranger!” Knight yelled angrily as he and Rook flew away towards the clearing dark clouds.

“They got away…” Kate looked at the direction where the two flew away before turning to Darkrai.

“ _Thank you for saving me once more, young ranger… I shall let your friends out from the Dark Void…”_ Darkrai told Kate through telepathy.

Shadow figures appeared from the ground and formed seven human shapes and six different pokemon shapes. Darkrai flew away and the shadow left the human and pokemon figures, revealing the figures to be the other rangers and their partners.

“Yes!” Keith pumped his fists to the air, “We’re finally out of the despair!” Keith turned to Kate, “You rock, Kate! I knew you could do it!”

“Nice job, little sis…” Lunick put a hand on her shoulder and smiled, before turning to Keith, who was enjoying the sunlight.

“I feel like I haven’t seen the sun for ages! It’s so bright!” Luana commented.

“I surely hope you don’t get your eyes burned!” Crawford laughed jokingly, getting an elbow from Luana.

Plusle ran over to Solana as soon as she saw her and jumped towards her shoulder. She brushed her face against her ranger’s cheek as she had already missed her ranger.

“Thank goodness that you guys are safe…” A tear fell down from her face, “Hearing the desperate voices of you guys made me thought that I had almost lost all of you…”


	9. GRSN’s True Intention!?

“Thank goodness you’re all safe…” Kate wiped her tears from her face and got a comforting hug from her brother.

“It’s all thanks to you… If you had failed to capture Darkrai, we might be trapped there forever…” Lunick broke the hug, “As a big brother, I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks Lunick…” Kate turned to the other rangers, who nodded in agreement.

“Now that it’s over, shall we head back? Professor Hastings should be waiting for our return,” Kellyn suggested.

“Okay!” Keith nodded, “How about a Doduo riding race to the Union?”

“Sounds like fun! Last one’s a rotten egg!” Crawford quickly ran towards the stairs.

“Hey, not fair! I haven’t said ‘start’ yet!” Keith ran after him towards the stairs.

Kate saw the two ran down the stairs and sighed, “Seriously… since they knew each other three years ago, they’ve always been competing against each other on pointless things like that…”

“Yeah, I could see that…” Luana sighed as well, “But we need to go back to the Union too, right?” Luana got a nod from the others.

“Hey! Everyone!” The rangers looked up and saw a certain green haired ranger on a Staraptor and a few other Staraptor.

“Hey, it’s Wendy!” Kate recognized the ranger as her Staraptor flew lower.

“Nice job as usual, Kate! I’ve got some Staraptor to take you all back to the Union,” Wendy instructed the other Staraptor to land so the others could get on.

“Okay, let’s go!” Lunick ordered as the Staraptor took off and headed towards the Ranger Union.

They landed in front of the building and went inside, greeted by Sven, who was waiting by the recharging counter with his Luxray. He noticed them coming in and walked over to Kate with a smile.

“Congratulations on another successful mission!” Sven shook her hand.

“I’M FIRST!” The door slid open and Keith and Crawford ran inside.

“No, you’re the last ones!” Luana teased them.

“WHAT!?”

“Okay, let’s just this reunion and head to the meeting room,” Sven suggested as the first arriving seven rangers followed him obediently. Keith and Crawford were hesitant at first, but finally obeyed as well.

The ten of them went to the meeting room and saw that Professor Hastings had already been waiting for them. They reported everything that happened in the tower, about Darkrai, about the three gems, and about the mysterious men from GRSN.

“I see… The situation might become worse than I’ve predicted…” Professor Hastings said, pacing back and forth in front of the rangers, “Even if the whole pokemon world is currently at peace, I feel that something bad is about to happen…”

“Is that GRSN group plotting something bad again?” Sven asked.

“We don’t know for sure as we haven’t got much information about them. We still don’t know what their true objective is,” Professor Hastings replied.

“But we do know that they’re gonna take over the world, right? That Rook guy told us before!” Keith protested.

“Yes, but they wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to take over regions who had small effect on the pokemon world, would they?” Professor Hastings asked back, “They first tried to steal Manaphy’s egg by hiring former Go-Rock Squad members, and then they had taken the purified shadow crystal from the tower and got away with it.”

“So you’re saying that they’re trying to steal important items to trick us into thinking that they’ll use them to take over the world?” Lunick asked.

“Precisely. The items they took could be used for world domination, but they ran away instead of calling for backup after they had failed or successfully taken the items,” Professor Hastings explained.

“Since we don’t know where their hideout is, we can’t do anything but wait until their next strike,” Wendy added, “We’ll just have to stop them then.”

“Yes. We’ll inform you if anything happens. Dismissed!” Professor Hastings finally said.

Unknown to the rangers, their discussions had been monitored from the beginning. The monitor projection was made from a projector with a black device similar to a handheld connected to it. A small light near the plug-in slot was blinking while the monitor was showing the video of the rangers’ discussion.

“You have one mistake, Rook!” Knight said angrily, “If you hadn’t said ‘rule the world’, then they wouldn’t suspect us like this!”

“How should I know!? They should be unwell educated!” Rook argued back.

“Enough!” Another voice silenced the arguing men, “As admins you should be ashamed to have stupid mistakes such as those! Maybe I shouldn’t have taken you in as one of the elite admins!”

“Boss! I mean… King, sir! Give us more chance! We’ll do best next time!” Rook pleaded.

“Yes, sir! I’m sure our next plan will work out perfectly fine!” Knight supported.

The man sighed, “Fine! This will be your very last chance! Another failure and I don’t want to see any of your faces here!”

“YES, SIR!” Rook and Knight nervously replied.

The projector monitoring the rangers was turned off as there was nothing left to be shown. The two admins stared at the place where the monitor was while thinking.

“What to do, Knight? What to do!?” Rook suddenly panicked and shook Knight violently.

“Stop it!” Knight broke free from Rook’s strong grip and turned to him with a sly look on his face, “I have the best plan! Do you know anything about the myth which mentions the rulers of time and space?”

“What!? You’re not gonna do it, right? We are endangered too if we messin’ with ‘em!” Rook replied in protest.

“We’re NOT going to it ouorselves!” Knight pulled out a black handheld, “I have some people much more suited to do the job!”

“Kay, then… Start now?” Rook asked foolishly.

“Not yet, not everything is ready. We’ll need to give them enough information so that they won’t mess up my perfect plan!” Knight’s eyes were still locked on the handheld, “We need to get those items first!”

“Those items? You mean we need to steal items AGAIN?” Rook asked, “Sorry bro, item stealing’s yours!”

“Fine! You won’t be any use in the stealing and what you do is no other than messing things up!” Knight took a folder full of paper from below the projector, “Here, just take this information report to ‘those guys’… Team Galactic…”

“Oh, just them? Kay, roger boss!” Rook saluted before he went out through the door into a foreign forest and rode on his waiting black Dragonite.

Knight was still inside, looking at his black handheld in his hand. He grinned evilly as he looked at the letters on the handheld. He put his handheld away and put his other hand on his chest, gripping the red ‘R’ logo on his black shirt.

‘ _Lord Giovanni, I swear… This Team Rocket logo and Team Rocket, your pride and joy… I will bring back Team Rocket to its former glory!’_ Knight put his hand off his chest and looked at the handheld on his left hand. A message was received.

_Thank you for the information documents you’ve sent. Lord Cyrus will be very pleased to lend you a hand in GRSN’s plans._

‘ _Rangers, trainers, or pokemon… everything… will be in our control!’_


	10. Last Day in Almia

“Yeah! Tomorrow’s gonna be a blast!” Keith exclaimed loudly.

Keith, Kate, Lunick, Solana, and their pokemon partners were sitting on the table on the ground floor. Their pokemon partners were eating under the table while the rangers were chatting.

“What day is tomorrow anyway?” Lunick asked, leaning back on his chair.

“Tomorrow is Almia’s Memorial Day! It’s gonna be fun!” Kate replied with a smile, “Oh, and this year there will be a special dance, so you may bring someone with you.”

“Sounds like fun!” Lunick turned to Solana, “How about it, Solana? Let’s take a day off after today’s battle and we’ll return to Fiore tomorrow after the celebration!”

“Okay, I’ll let Leader know while reporting in tonight,” Solana answered with a nod, “But what should we wear tomorrow? We’ll have a dance tomorrow, so I’m guessing that we should put on some formal clothes, right?”

“Nope, you don’t have to,” Keith answered, “You may wear any kinds of clothes as the dance isn’t a formal dance.”

“But we haven’t been told what kind of dance it will be. He said that it’ll be a big surprise,” Kate added.

“Who is ‘he’?” Lunick asked.

“He’s Mr. Wyatt Hall, the president of Altru Inc. He was let go after the interrogation about the shadow crystal problem under strict supervision until last year,” Kate explained.

“Oh, I’ve heard about him! He was first known as President Blake Hall, right?” Solana asked.

“Bingo, we have a winner. He’s the man behind the whole shadow crystal incident in Almia three years ago,” Keith answered.

“Hey, it’s getting late now. Let’s call it a day so we have a lot of energy tomorrow!” Kate suggested and the four of them rose from their seats.

The rangers headed towards their dorms to turn in for the day, except for Lunick. Solana noticed him going to the upper floor instead of going to the dorm along with Keith, Buizel, and Minun. She quietly followed him to the rooftop.

Solana hid behind the giant tree and saw Lunick leaning against the railing. The full moon’s light shone on him as he looked up at it. His face showed the expression that he was hurt inside. His eyes showed sadness, the pain from his bitter past.

“There’s no need to hide, Solana. You can come out from behind the tree now,” Lunick suddenly said, surprising Solana who was hiding behind the tree.

“S-Sorry! I wasn’t spying on you! I was just…” Solana came out panicking, but then sighed and frowned, “I was worried about you…”

Lunick smiled sadly and turned to her, “Thanks for being worried about me, but I’ll be fine,” Lunick stepped to Solana’s side, “I guess… Kate has told you everything about our past, huh?”

Solana slowly nodded, “Yeah, I’m really sorry for your loss,” Lunick stayed silent, “If only there’s something I can do to help you cheer up… I’ll be glad to do it just for you…”

“Thanks Solana,” Lunick pulled the teal-haired ranger into a hug, “You’re the best girl I can ever love…”

Solana was stunned at Lunick’s words. He broke the hug and smiled at her. He leaned in closer and closer until their lips met. The two rangers shared the romantic moment together, not noticing that they were being watched not too far from there.

“Things could be better if I had brought my video camera with me!” Kate whispered angrily.

“I don’t think watching their moments together is such a good idea…” Keith, who was beside her, told her, “You’re on your own now, see ya!”

Kate ignored him as he left downstairs and kept spying on her brother until she finally got bored, “Oh well, there’s nothing else interesting to watch here. I think I should go to bed too…” Kate yawned tiredly and headed towards the girls’ dorm.

The next day, the rangers gathered on the ground floor before heading to the park where the celebration for Almia’s Memorial Day took place. Solana, Kate, Kellyn, Sven, and Wendy were all waiting for Lunick and Keith as they all planned to leave for the park on Staraptor together.

Their partner pokemon were all playing together, except for Sven’s Luxray and Wendy’s Staraptor, who were waiting outside with the other seven Staraptor. The rangers were chatting near the counter in the middle of the room when Lunick and Keith came running down the escalator.

“Sorry we’re late!” Lunick and Keith said in unison.

“As usual…” Kate commented before turning to Wendy, “By the way, why do we need eight Staraptor if there are only seven of us going?”

“Actually, I invited Rhythmi to come with us,” Kellyn explained, “Her job as an operator seems stressful, so I decided to take her out and let her have a day off.”

“Oh, I see… So you’re taking her out on a date?” Keith playfully elbowed Kellyn.

“N-No… I just want her to be happy after all the trouble I have put her into. I am doing this for her as a good friend,” Kellyn tried to keep his cool self by calming himself with a deep breath.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” The gang turned to the escalator and they saw a girl with blonde hair. She was wearing a green coat and a green skirt.

“Okay, everyone’s here!” Keith said excitedly, “Let’s go to the park and have some fun!”

The gang went outside and rode on a Staraptor, heading towards the park. As they were getting closer to the park, they could see colorful stands from the distance. They landed near the park’s west entrance and saw a lot of people coming to the park.

The gang separated in pairs, all exploring the park full of stands. Lunick was with Solana, Keith was with Kate, Kellyn was with Rhythmi, and Sven was with Wendy. The pairs looked around the newly decorated park area. The stands were mostly food stands and game stands, but there were also some souvenir stands as well.

When it was almost noon, the people gathered near the stage in the middle of the park, where a certain famous band group was going to perform and sing some songs for the upcoming dance.

“Go-Rock Quads! Go-Rock Quads!” The people yelled excitedly.

“Thank you everyone!” The Go-Rock Quads’ leader, Billy, said through the microphone, “We’re lucky to be able to come back from out world tour just in time to perform here! I hope you’ve got your dance partners now, ‘cause we’re ready to play some music!”

Billy went back to his band and signaled his other band members, who were his siblings. After the music started, the people started dancing in pairs. The dance was actually a mix of Cha-Cha dance steps combined with a few Jive moves, but a cheerful and informal style of them.

The celebration lasted until the sky turned orange in color and the sun was about to set. The rangers took the way back to Union by wild Doduo they all captured all by themselves, except for Wendy who flew on her Staraptor. When the other rangers arrived at the Union, Wendy had already been waiting outside with her Staraptor and a Dragonite.

“It looks like it’s time to go back, right Solana?” Lunick turned to Solana, and she nodded slowly.

The rangers hopped down before they released the Doduo. Lunick and Solana along with plusle and Minun went over to Dragonite as it ducked down, letting the rangers and pokemon to hop on to his back.

“I guess it’s time for us to leave,” Lunick said sadly, “Take care, everyone! Especially you, Kate!”

“Shut up! I’m not a little girl anymore! I’m already eighteen years old!” Kate protested.

“Bye everyone! Let’s all meet up again someday!” Solana said, waving at the rangers below.

As Lunick and Solana waved goodbye, Dragonite slowly took off. They flew through the orange-colored sky, looking at the sunset as they passed through. When the sky was turning dark blue color, Dragonite dove down into the thin layers of clouds and the land of Fiore could be seen from the high sky. They landed on Ringtown Base rooftop safely and were greeted by Spenser before turning in for the day.


End file.
